Middle Class Meltdown in America

Middle Class Meltdown in America
Author: Kevin T Leicht
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2013-12-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134631499

In accessible prose for North American undergraduate students, this short text provides a sociological understanding of the causes and consequences of growing middle class inequality, with an abundance of supporting, empirical data. The book also addresses what we, as individuals and as a society, can do to put middle class Americans on a sounder footing.

Broke

Broke
Author: Katherine Porter
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2012-01-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0804780587

About 1.5 million households filed bankruptcy in the last year, making bankruptcy as common as college graduation and divorce. The recession has pushed more and more families into financial collapse—with unemployment, declines in retirement wealth, and falling house values destabilizing the American middle class. Broke explores the consequences of this unprecedented growth in consumer debt and shows how excessive borrowing undermines the prosperity of middle class America. While the recession that began in mid-2007 has widened the scope of the financial pain caused by overindebtedness, the problem predated that large-scale economic meltdown. And by all indicators, consumer debt will be a defining feature of middle-class families for years to come. The staples of middle-class life—going to college, buying a house, starting a small business—carry with them more financial risk than ever before, requiring more borrowing and new riskier forms of borrowing. This book reveals the people behind the statistics, looking closely at how people get to the point of serious financial distress, the hardships of dealing with overwhelming debt, and the difficulty of righting one's financial life. In telling the stories of financial failures, this book exposes an all-too-real part of middle-class life that is often lost in the success stories that dominate the American economic narrative. Authored by experts in several disciplines, including economics, law, political science, psychology, and sociology, Broke presents analyses from an original, proprietary data set of unprecedented scope and detail, the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project. Topics include class status, home ownership, educational attainment, impacts of self-employment, gender differences, economic security, and the emotional costs of bankruptcy. The book makes judicious use of illustrations to present key findings and concludes with a discussion of the implications of the data for contemporary policy debates.

The American Middle Class [2 volumes]

The American Middle Class [2 volumes]
Author: Robert S. Rycroft
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 1087
Release: 2017-05-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1610697588

What is the "American Dream"? This book's author argues that contrary to what many believe, it is not achieving the wealth necessary to enter the top one percent but rather becoming members of the great middle class by dint of hard work and self-discipline. Americans of all classes consider themselves to be "middle class." There are Americans who by any objective standard should be considered poor who would insist they are middle class, just as other Americans who should be considered wealthy also insist they are middle class. Thinking of yourself and being thought of by others as middle class is the "American Dream" for tens of millions of people. But an enduring problem of the American middle class is the worry that the "Dream" is coming apart—that forces are lurking in the shadows waiting to steal their progress and throw them back into "poverty." This thought-provoking reference explores a disparate multitude of issues associated with being middle class in America. It addresses a range of questions and subtopics, including the meaning of the term "middle class"; how middle class status is expressed by both the majority and the various minorities that make up the American mosaic; what economic pressures are bearing down on the middle class; and how economists and others attempt to make sense of the economic issues of the day. Readers will also better understand how political institutions and public policies are shaping the way the middle class views the world; how labor, housing, education, and crime-related issues have influenced the development and growth of the middle class; the norms of the middle class versus those of other classes in society; and the role of culture and media in shaping how members of the middle class view themselves—and how they are viewed by others. This two-volume set provides a comprehensive look at the American middle class that supports student research in economics, social studies, cultural studies, and political history. The content supports teachers in their development of lesson plans and assignments that directly align with the Common Core State Standards and the recommendations of the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (NCSS) with respect to all ten NCSS themes.

We Have Never Been Middle Class

We Have Never Been Middle Class
Author: Hadas Weiss
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2019-10-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1788733932

Tidings of a shrinking middle class in one part of the world and its expansion in another absorb our attention, but seldom do we question the category itself. We Have Never Been Middle Class proposes that the middle class is an ideology. Tracing this ideology up to the age of financialization, it exposes the fallacy in the belief that we can all ascend or descend as a result of our aspirational and precautionary investments in property and education. Ethnographic accounts from Germany, Israel, the USA and elsewhere illustrate how this belief orients us, in our private lives as much as in our politics, toward accumulation-enhancing yet self-undermining goals. This original meshing of anthropology and critical theory elucidates capitalism by way of its archetypal actors.

Disembedded

Disembedded
Author: Basak Kus
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2024-05-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0197764878

In Disembedded, Basak Kus draws from the theories of Karl Polanyi--one of the greatest and most influential political economists of the twentieth century--to examine how neoliberal principles influenced the evolution of American regulatory policies, shaping the financial sector's operations and practices. Offering historical insights into the financial crisis spanning 2007-2010 and its ensuing influence on American politics and democracy, Disembedded provides a broad-ranging and systemic explanation of the American political economy, especially the regulatory landscape that shaped the patterns of financialization.

A Century of Wealth in America

A Century of Wealth in America
Author: Edward N. Wolff
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 885
Release: 2017-10-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0674495144

Understanding wealth—who has it, how they acquired it, how they preserve it—is crucial to addressing challenges facing the United States. Edward Wolff’s account of patterns in the accumulation and distribution of U.S. wealth since 1900 provides a sober bedrock of facts and analysis. It will become an indispensable resource for future public debate.

Social Inequality

Social Inequality
Author: Martin Marger
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences & World Languages
Total Pages: 436
Release: 1999
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781559347358

A textbook for an interdisciplinary undergraduate course that addresses what Marger (sociology, Michigan State U.) sees as a major deficiency that others either analyze only one form of social equality or analytically conflate them making it difficult to distinguish them. She engages class, racial a

Meltdown

Meltdown
Author: Thomas E. Woods
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2009-02-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1596981067

With a foreword from Ron Paul, Meltdown is the free-market answer to the Fed-created economic crisis. As the new Obama administration inevitably calls for more regulations, Woods argues that the only way to rebuild our economy is by returning to the fundamentals of capitalism and letting the free market work.

ReFocus: The Films of Amy Heckerling

ReFocus: The Films of Amy Heckerling
Author: Frances Smith
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2016-02-19
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1474404626

Refocus: The Films of Amy Heckerling is the first book-length study of the work of Amy Heckerling, the phenomenally popular director and screenwriter of Clueless and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. As such, the book constitutes a significant intervention in Film Studies, prompting a reconsideration of the importance of Heckerling both in the development of Teen cinema, and as a figure in Hollywood comedy. As part of the Refocus series, the volume brings together outstanding original essays examining Heckerling's work from a variety of perspectives, including film, television and cultural studies and is destined to be used widely in undergraduate teaching.

More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time)

More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time)
Author: William Julius Wilson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2010-03-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0393073521

A preeminent sociologist of race explains a groundbreaking new framework for understanding racial inequality, challenging both conservative and liberal dogma. In this timely and provocative contribution to the American discourse on race, William Julius Wilson applies an exciting new analytic framework to three politically fraught social problems: the persistence of the inner-city ghetto, the plight of low-skilled black males, and the fragmentation of the African American family. Though the discussion of racial inequality is typically ideologically polarized. Wilson dares to consider both institutional and cultural factors as causes of the persistence of racial inequality. He reaches the controversial conclusion that while structural and cultural forces are inextricably linked, public policy can only change the racial status quo by reforming the institutions that reinforce it.